In view of preventing global warming, energy saving has been considered recently in varieties of fields. Also, in the field of the image forming method via electrophotography, a method to save energy in the fixing process by fixing an image only by pressing without heating (for example, refer to Patent Document 1) or a method to recycle the image supporting substrate (for example, refer to Patent Document 2) has been proposed.
However, in these methods, since toner particles are deformed irreversibly, there is a problem that recycling of the toner particles is difficult.
In order to solve such a problem, proposed is a method in which a concave portion is formed on the surface of an image supporting substrate, and toner particles are electrostatically adhered to fix the image (for example, refer to Patent Document 3) or a method to use toner particles containing a resin having a shape memory (for example, refer to Patent Document 4).
However, when the method to form the concave portion on the surface of an image supporting substrate is applied, desorption of the toner particles from the concave portion tends to occur to cause a stain on the image, or, even when toner particles containing a resin having a shape memory, it is difficult to obtain a high quality image due to the effect of light scattering occurring on the surfaces of toner particles.
Thus, while energy saving has been conventionally attained by the recycling of the image forming materials, there have been only few methods which enable forming a high quality image.
Patent Document 1 Japanese Patent Application Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereafter referred to as JP-A) No. 6-242627
Patent Document 2 JP-A No. 2003-5435
Patent Document 3 Japanese Patent No. 4085505
Patent Document 4 JP-A No. 10-142834